This year's swath of country albums were a diverse collection of contemporary pop, new rough-edged sounds and throwbacks to the genre's roots. Mega releases from the biggest stars filled country radio and vied with underrated albums from new artists and legends. All this made picking a list of the Top 10 albums difficult in spots (I hated having to leave off Lee Brice's "Hard 2 Love") and easy in others (Dwight Yoakam was an obvious number one).

Here's my take on the year's top 10 - records that I've enjoyed from the first spin and have returned to throughout the year. Click here to listen to a Spotify playlist with all of these albums. | Dec. 21, 2012»Read Full Blog Post(1)

John Holl studies the beer list at Uber Tap Room, 1048 N. Old World 3rd St., like a student readying for the SAT. He pores over the front and back before ordering a Black Husky Pale Ale, which happens to be the first beer listed.

Beer brought Holl here from his New Jersey home. Not just because of Wisconsin's many craft breweries and Milwaukee's brewing heritage, although either would be a good reason. He has a book to sell. The editor for All About Beer Magazine is also the author of "The American Craft Beer Cookbook," a collection of recipes gathered from breweries, brewpubs, chefs and beer-centric restaurants around the country. | Oct. 18, 2013»Read Full Article(1)

Since the departure of Barenaked Ladies co-founder and co-frontman, Steven Page in 2009, the four remaining band members have soldiered on to prove that even a slightly re-arranged format can still carry - and create - the catchy melodies and cheeky, endearing humor that the band was long known for. The release of "Grinning Streak" earlier this year - their second post-Page album - was a strong point in the band's evolution, merging new pop sounds with the classic unique brand of BNL personality.

On a disc filled with interesting tracks, "Odds Are" stood out with remarkable hit potential - and it's received a decent share of radio play since its single release in July. But, its newly released music video brings the total package for fans of the Canadian pop quartet. Produced by Rooster Teeth, the company responsible for the super-successful Red vs. Blue online series, the video for "Odds Are" finds the BNL crew skewering a TV news broadcast in the wake of a series of apocalyptic reports. And, it's already a hit - garnering more than 1.3 million views in its first week online. | Oct. 18, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

Visitors to the new exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum should understand that Thomas Sully is not Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

Although the feature exhibition of 19th-century portraiture, eight years in the making, is titled "Thomas Sully: Painted Performance," you will not find the frenzied work of a man driven to haunt the local theater to study the plight of the marginalized artist. | Oct. 18, 2013»Read Full Article

Art of war

It's startling to look at a beautiful Oriental rug and see helicopters, tanks and missile launchers. Startling and thought-provoking. A number of such works of fiber art are on display at the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, 2220 Terrace Ave., for its "Afghan War Rugs: The Modern Art of Central Asia" exhibit. Event is free with museum admission, which is $7 for adults, $5 for seniors, students and members of the military. | Oct. 18, 2013»Read Full Article

If American music had a Mount Rushmore, Duke Ellington surely would be on it.

Ellington (1899-1974) helped raise jazz to the status of art, putting together bands that defined the American soundtrack for a generation, stretching and teasing popular music in directions that spoke to audiences around the world. | Oct. 18, 2013»Read Full Article

The remains of a dock's stone pilings protrude from Lake Superior "like the vertebrae of a broken spine as if just below the surface there might be the skeleton of some huge ancient monster." This striking description opens "The Land of Dreams" (University of Minnesota Press, $24.99), a remarkable mystery set in Minnesota from Norwegian writer Vidar Sundstøl. The image suggests one of the novel's most intriguing themes: that history can be an "ancient monster" hiding, waiting, unseen and unspoken, until a storm exposes it and then we must confront that which we've silenced, ignored or simply forgotten.

Such a storm pummels Lance Hansen, the grandson of Norwegian immigrants and a police officer with the Superior National Forest Service. Called to investigate an illegal campsite on the North Shore near Baraga's Cross, Hansen discovers two naked men, Norwegian tourists, one catatonic seated at the foot of the cross and the other savagely murdered at their nearby campsite. Because Baraga's Cross rests on federal land the FBI leads the investigation and because the victims are foreign tourists, Norwegian detective Eirik Nyland arrives to assist. | Oct. 18, 2013»Read Full Article

The real estate website Zillow considers Milwaukee one of the 20 best cities for trick-or-treating. The 2013 index puts San Francisco as the top spot. Milwaukee ranks No. 16 on the list. | Oct. 18, 2013»Read Full Article(5)

After a harrowing series of events midway through Sara Paretsky's "Critical Mass" (Putnam, $26.95), V.I. Warshawski, Paretsky's bodacious PI, admits she may have been misguided about the case she's pursuing, one that connects contemporary Chicago to Vienna during World War II. V.I. feels "powerless" in the face of the case's tragic twists and while her passion for justice remains relentless, it's a slightly mellowed V.I. who chases the investigation to its end.

"When V.I. first appeared in 'Indemnity Only' (1984)," Paretsky explains in a recent phone interview from her home in Chicago, "I was brasher" so "V.I. was brasher." Although the "cranky snarly" V.I. will be back in the next book, in this one, Paretsky says, it seemed important to mellow V.I. a little. "My European relatives were obliterated during the war," says Paretsky, "so when I revisit their stories ... a large shadow looms. It's an age of grief. I had to have V.I. more muted around these sacred dead." | Oct. 18, 2013»Read Full Article

Madison—The late Susan Sontag used to talk about “old” and “new” as essential poles of feeling and perception. In what’s old, she would say, we pack away our wisdom, memories, sadness and sense of realism. In what’s to come, we invest our energy, hope and longings.

Late in "Jersey Boys," the musical about the Four Seasons now back at the Marcus Center, Frankie Valli sums up his life by telling us he's "still chasing the music, trying to get home."

The strategic choice to showcase Valli's disconnect between where he is and the place he'd like to be — in a hard-lived life where music both separates him from home and holds out the promise he'll get there — tells us a great deal about why "Jersey Boys" has been so successful. | Oct. 18, 2013»Read Full Article(2)